


Break Up to Make Up

by cian1675



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Best Friends, Break Up, Gen, I'm not saying which because spoilers, M/M, Post-Break Up, Slice of Life, Slow Build, more tags will be updated along the way, or may be onesided, some of the relationship tags are more platonic than romantic, someone might be a little dense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-08-24 04:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8356933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cian1675/pseuds/cian1675
Summary: Woohyun's always been the type that gives too much in a relationship. It doesn't work out though, it never does. Whoever Woohyun dates always gets overwhelmed and burdened by the way he gives and gives but never takes, and eventually they break up. Being Woohyun's best friend, Sunggyu has had to sit through the slow torturous process of seeing Woohyun piece himself back together too many times before. This time is no different. Or at least, that's what he thinks until Woohyun's newest ex, Dongwoo, accidentally lets slip something he shouldn't.And that's how Sunggyu comes to learn that romantic relationships are not the only ones that can break up.





	1. Who gave too much

It’s been a really long time since Sunggyu has to do this – sit on the cold floor with a pack of unopened beer beside him, next to a softly sniffing Woohyun who’s surrounded by a comforter and a growing pile of crumpled tissues. He doesn’t say anything, just sits and watches the condensation on the beer cans pool and make a dark patch on the thin parquet. Woohyun’s face is splotchy and red, and he’s dabbing tissues against his eyes. The tissues are almost translucent from how wet they are, but Sunggyu doesn’t comment on it. He merely reaches over, pulls a couple more sheets out from the steadily emptying box by Woohyun’s feet and hands them to Woohyun without a word.

Woohyun doesn’t say anything, but he takes the tissues from Sunggyu’s outstretched hand with a little sniff. It’s almost a thanks, one that’s not verbalized but then again, they’ve been friends for so long that it’ll be embarrassing to say it. Sunggyu blinks a little slowly, notices that Woohyun sees it, because the corner of his lips twitch a little although it doesn’t settle into the smile he always wears outside his apartment. It’ll be awkward to acknowledge the moment though, so Sunggyu grabs the beer pack and pulls out a can. Woohyun won’t be drinking it; he never does in all the times Sunggyu has bought beer over for such situations, and Sunggyu’s not sure why he still does it. The sound of the tab popping as Sunggyu opens the can is too loud in the room, but it doesn’t cover the steady sniffling sounds Woohyun makes as he tries to cry his heart out as silently as possibly.

Then again, when has it ever?

 

 

It’s a guy this time. But it might have just as easily been a girl. Woohyun has always fallen for people based on who they are, rather than because of their gender. It’s just another one of those things that Sunggyu accepts easily without questioning because that’s just how his best friend is, has been, since they were kids. It’s one of the constants he’s always known, just like how he knows Woohyun is the one who got dumped this time, like all the other times before it. It’s almost always for the same reason – even if it starts off well, whoever Woohyun dates eventually finds him too overwhelming, the way he gives and gives but never asks for much in return.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a guy or a girl. It doesn’t matter if they like the way Woohyun is always accommodating and willing to give at the start. It doesn’t matter. Eventually they feel burdened by his generous love. Eventually they feel like they cannot ever love him as much as he loves them. Eventually they walk away. The only constant through all these is Sunggyu, who has to sit through the slow torturous process of seeing Woohyun piece himself back together, like what’s happening right now. These are the constants, and these are what Sunggyu knows how to handle – has had to handle too many times before – but this time there’s something a little different.

Sunggyu sees the guy who was Woohyun’s boyfriend until just two days ago walk into the school cafeteria, and he senses, rather than sees Woohyun freeze. He’s about to suggest that they leave since they’re almost done eating anyway, but the guy’s at their table too fast, and Sunggyu doesn’t get a chance to.

“…hey,” the guy says, a little serious with a dash of cautiousness thrown in, but there’s a slight smile on his lips as he looks at Woohyun.

After what feels like too long but is probably just a second or two, Woohyun replies, “Hey, Dongwoo.”

There’s a smile plastered on Woohyun’s face, stretched wide and raising his cheeks a tad. It’s not his real smile – that much is quickly obvious, especially when the expression he had on just seconds earlier had been a pretty stoic one. But it’s not an entirely fake one either, Sunggyu realizes after a while, because Woohyun’s eyes aren’t just sad. Sure, there are hints of sadness in them, but Woohyun’s gaze is different from all the other times Sunggyu has seen him look at an ex in public after a breakup. There’s something _else_ , something Sunggyu doesn’t quite catch, as Woohyun tilts his head up to look at the standing guy, but Sunggyu doesn’t know what. He wants to get up and leave already, wants to drag Woohyun away from this uncomfortable situation, but Sunggyu doesn’t. He doesn’t because this is Woohyun’s issue to deal with, and he cannot make his decisions for him. So he stays where he is on the hard plastic chair, and wonders if Woohyun or Dongwoo would speak first.

It’s Dongwoo who breaks the silence.

“I… was serious when I said I still want to be friends with you, you know. Even though we… broke up.”

Sunggyu has to stifle a snort, but Woohyun takes the statement with much more grace than he did, nodding thoughtfully. After a while, Woohyun looks back down on his hands, instead of at Dongwoo, and says, “I know. And… I do too. But I need some time.”

Dongwoo doesn’t say anything after that, just nods and almost reaches over to pat Woohyun’s shoulder before he quickly retracts it and says instead, “That’s alright. I know I’m probably asking too much, wanting to remain friends even after the break up but I really do like you, Woohyun. Just… maybe not as a boyfriend.”

It sounds like the most terrible thing one can say to an ex after a breakup, but Sunggyu’s not the one talking to his ex post-breakup here, nor the one on the receiving end of such a callous message, so he just observes Woohyun’s face freeze a little before a smile is conjured onto his face again, and he smiles at Dongwoo. “I know.”

And there it is, the reason why Woohyun always gets dumped. He gives too much, because he loves too hard.

 

 

Sunggyu’s in a café shuffling his foolscap into a neat pile after a group work session with Hoya when he sees Dongwoo for the second time that day. Unlike the first time when he spotted the guy once he walked in the cafeteria entrance, this time Sunggyu has his head down while packing his bag, so he only notices Dongwoo’s presence when Hoya greets Dongwoo. He’s known Hoya for a while now; they tend to do projects together when they have the same modules because they work well together, but he doesn’t exactly initiate conversation with him outside of class much. It’s the reason why he had never known that Hoya knows Dongwoo, or that he seems to, in fact, know Dongwoo quite well, from the way he’s grinning and shoving Dongwoo as the other tries to steal his coffee.

“Hey, Sunggyu,” Dongwoo says after he swallows the sip of coffee that he did eventually manage to steal from Hoya after much protest.

“Hey,” Sunggyu replies, because it’s only polite. He doesn’t really know Dongwoo all that well, to be honest, because they only interacted whenever one of them ran into the other while with Woohyun. But Dongwoo has been (had been) dating Woohyun for the better part of a year now, so that’s still a lot of times he’s seen Dongwoo, which, surely, adds up to something, something that might be familiarity but not quite. Whatever the case is, it’s awkward – if possible, even more awkward than earlier in the cafeteria – so Sunggyu quickly zips up his bag pack and stands up to leave.

It’s only later when he’s at the bus stop waiting for his bus to go home does he realize that Hoya and Dongwoo might have been touchier than friends usually are in the café just now. He’s not sure what to make of it. Eventually he decides to drop the thought, because Sunggyu belatedly realizes that he’s not even really sure how Hoya behaves with his friends. After all, it’s not like he’s really seen Hoya with his friends in all the times they’ve met up to do group work together. It’s kind of strange, but Sunggyu’s too used to minimizing his contact with most people other than a few close friends that he hadn’t even thought about how that means he knows little to nothing about the people he interacts with in university until he started wondering if Hoya’s touchiness with Dongwoo is normal, and he hadn’t had anything to compare it to.

That night, curiosity gets the better of him, and Sunggyu finds himself sending a message to Hoya that’s not about work.

_[11:41pm] I never knew that you know Dongwoo._

It takes a while, but Hoya replies.

_[11:54pm] That’s probably not the only thing you don’t know._

Because it’s a text message, Sunggyu can’t really tell if Hoya’s message is supposed to be a sarcastic remark or just cryptic. Hoya has been known to be both in the duration he has known him. In the end, Sunggyu gives up guessing, and just types out a reply without thinking too much.

_[12:02am] So what *do* I know?_

The reply comes before Sunggyu has the time to put his phone down after sending his last message.

_[12:02am] I don’t know what you know, but I know what I know._

The lack of tone in text is still frustrating, but Sunggyu can almost hear Hoya being a little shit in that last message and he decides the guy’s probably being cryptic instead of just sarcastic in his brand of dry humor. Or maybe he’s wrong, because Hoya sends another message.

_[12:03am] Dongwoo’s a nice person, you know. I know you’re good friends with Woohyun so you’ll probably take his side, but I hope it doesn’t cloud your perception of Dongwoo._

He’s not sure why Hoya feels the need to tell him that (or how he’s already picked up Sunggyu’s apprehension towards Dongwoo when he’s only seen them interact for less than five minutes). When Sunggyu reads the message a second time to figure out a reply, he belatedly realizes the way Hoya had phrased his words mean he probably knows about Woohyun and Dongwoo, and more specifically, that they’ve broken up. To be fair, even though Woohyun and Dongwoo have never broadcasted their relationship, they’re not the type that would bother hiding it either, so maybe it’s not surprising that Hoya knows. Maybe what’s surprising instead is Sunggyu starting to realize how little he knows about anything. He’s always been a bit more on the side of detached and perhaps really just too lazy to care, but he can’t help but wonder if he should have bothered more.

_[12:05am] Well, you seem to know a lot, but fyi, Woohyun’s my best friend, not just my good friend._

 

 

For all his apprehension about Dongwoo, arising from perhaps an irrational urge to be protective of Woohyun (even if Woohyun is a grown man and can protect himself well enough), Sunggyu finds it hard to keep his cautiousness around Dongwoo when the guy’s always cheerful and friendly. After that day when he sees Dongwoo twice, Sunggyu doesn’t run into Dongwoo for about a week. It’s probably on account of the fact that the guy just broke up with Woohyun, and is being careful to avoid interactions for that period where everyone’s hearts (but especially Woohyun’s) are a bit fragile. During this immediate week post breakup, Sunggyu’s pretty much always around Woohyun to keep his spirits up, although it mostly involves him keeping up with the usual routine of going to lectures as if nothing’s changed. It’s always been what worked best in the past anyway.

Woohyun doesn’t comment on it but the tired smiles he gives once in a while is indication enough that Sunggyu’s company is appreciated. The little smiles become less forced and more natural, and Woohyun’s dimples make their reappearance once in a while after that first week. That’s also roughly when Dongwoo starts dropping by.

At first, it’s just casual greetings in the corridor when Sunggyu and Woohyun are walking to lectures. Then, Dongwoo pops by when Sunggyu’s doing work with Hoya, which isn’t too bad, because Woohyun isn’t there, and it’s not like Sunggyu can deny Dongwoo from hanging out with Hoya. It makes the group discussion (or rather, _pair_ discussion) longer than they usually take because Dongwoo butts in every now and then with some offhanded suggestion but they’re not entirely useless and they break up the monotony of work so Sunggyu doesn’t particularly mind. Hoya’s usually in a better mood when Dongwoo’s around anyway, so that’s always a plus.

But afterwards, Dongwoo takes to appearing in the cafeteria during the lunches Sunggyu shares with Woohyun. He’s not sure if Dongwoo eats lunch alone with Woohyun when Sunggyu’s not there, or if he only appears during the lunches that Sunggyu has with Woohyun so that Sunggyu can act as a buffer. He knows he can just ask Woohyun if he wants to know, but Sunggyu doesn’t really think it’s his business if Woohyun wants to keep being friends with his ex, so he doesn’t pry. Either way, it seems that after a few strained conversations, Woohyun stops looking so uncomfortable when Dongwoo sits with them for lunch, so Sunggyu lets his walls down a little. Dongwoo hasn’t really done anything to warrant the suspicion anyway, besides breaking up with Woohyun, which is not in itself something that makes him a bad person. So Sunggyu tries to be amicable, and finds it much easier to do than he expected because of how approachable Dongwoo is, and how he manages to keep conversation going easily. To be honest though, it also helps that Woohyun doesn’t look like he’s about to run away or suddenly cry the moment he sees Dongwoo after the first few lunches. It’s odd, this lunch arrangement, but maybe Sunggyu’s the one overthinking things because obviously Woohyun and Dongwoo don’t mind. After a while, Sunggyu stops thinking of Dongwoo as Woohyun’s ex, and more like a guy who eats lunch with them (or what some might call a _friend_ if they don’t have Sunggyu’s strict definition of what a friend should be).

It’s during one of these lunches that Woohyun suddenly jerks his head up too fast, and Sunggyu’s wondering what’s wrong when Woohyun mutters, “Shit, I forgot I have to print my assignment before class…”

Woohyun trails off as he quickly stuffs the rest of his rice and soup into his mouth, but Sunggyu infers the rest of the sentence easily: Woohyun didn’t bring his laptop so he has to run to the computer labs to print, but those are on the other side of the building, and his class is in 10 minutes so he has to hurry. That’s the reason why Woohyun barely has time to wave bye as he hurriedly carries his metal tray of empty bowls to the return counter and leaves Dongwoo and Sunggyu sitting at the table alone. It’s the first time Sunggyu is alone with Dongwoo, and he never noticed how awkward it is because he’s only ever interacted with Dongwoo when there’s Woohyun or Hoya around. Even Dongwoo, who’s friendlier than Sunggyu by nature, notices the sudden palpable tension in the air after Woohyun’s hasty exit, and he laughs a little.

“I hope Woohyun makes it to class in time,” Sunggyu offers, because he can’t think of anything else to say.

“Hmm,” Dongwoo hums, as he scoops rice out of his bowl cleanly. “He will. Probably. He runs fast when he wants to.”

There’s a long pause during which they both rack their brains for something else to say (or maybe it’s just Sunggyu thinking hard, because Dongwoo seems to be focused on getting every last grain of rice out of his rice bowl). It’s at this moment when Dongwoo suddenly says, as if they haven’t just had a long moment of silence, “I’m glad you don’t hate me just because I’m Woohyun’s ex.”

Sunggyu blinks rapidly, before he finds words. “Uh, well. Breaking up doesn’t automatically make you a bad person.”

Dongwoo nods at that, and Sunggyu’s wondering if the nod means Dongwoo agrees with him or if it’s just an indication that he’s listening when the guy says, “Especially when I’m not the one who asked to break up.”

It takes a while for the words to sink in, but when they do, Sunggyu feels his brows furrow. Dongwoo wasn’t the one who broke up with Woohyun? He’s about to ask (or maybe not, because it’s kind of rude to ask), when Dongwoo continues, “I wasn’t the one who broke up with him. I mean, I was, sort of. I was the one to bring it up, but it’s really Woohyun who wanted to break up long before me. He’s not into me. He never was, not in that way, at least. He felt bad and he overcompensated by giving me too much attention but after a while he told me. He wasn’t in love with me –“

 _Huh_. Sunggyu’s never thought to interpret Woohyun generously giving in his relationships as overcompensation. He’s always assumed Woohyun just really likes the other person, often more than the person does in return. He’s too busy turning this new information over in his head, comparing it to his long-formed opinions of Woohyun, that he doesn’t notice Dongwoo still talking –

“– he’s in love with you.”

_Huh?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I shouldn't be starting a new fic when I have 3 ongoing ones but I fell into Infinite and I couldn't stop myself from writing something new. I know it's mostly just setting up the story for now, but I'll love to hear what you think! Also, thank you for reading :)
> 
> Edit: I changed the title from "Give and Take" to "Break Up to Make Up" because I think I have a direction for the fic now.


	2. A million reasons

It takes only a second for Dongwoo’s hand to cover his mouth, but the words have already been uttered, and Sunggyu has already heard it, although his brain hasn’t quite processed it.

_He’s in love with you._

“I said too much,” Dongwoo mumbles, eyes lowering and looking sheepish. He gives a little wave as if it will dismiss what Sunggyu’s still trying to comprehend because surely, _surely he must have heard wrongly_. He doesn’t get the chance to confirm it though, because Dongwoo’s hurriedly getting up, saying he needs to go for class, and Sunggyu finds himself the only person still sitting at the suddenly empty table, momentarily lost.

 

 

If he doesn’t count what Dongwoo just said – and he doesn’t, for various reasons – Sunggyu’s never been confessed to before. Not once in his whole life, although it’s not exactly something he really minds much at this point. Back in high school, he used to think it meant he wasn’t good enough, that he wasn’t popular with the girls the way Woohyun was, because Woohyun had dated a few girls in high school after they confessed to him. The only two times Sunggyu’s ever dated in his twenty-five years of life, he had been the one to confess. It isn’t a big deal. After all, it’s not like the person who confessed will end up being the one more in love, or the one who’s more invested in the relationship. Woohyun had always ended up being the more invested party even if his girlfriend (and sometimes, boyfriend) was the one who initiated the relationship, and Sunggyu’s always been the one less invested in his own relationships even though he’s the one who confessed to his exes. So Sunggyu doesn’t particularly care who confesses first in a relationship, or whether he’ll ever be confessed to. Because he doesn’t think it really matters. And besides, it’s not like he wants to be in a relationship anyway, and getting confessed to tends to get in the way of that.

Sunggyu’s single. Mostly. He’s been single for most of his life, at first because he didn’t know how to get into a relationship, and now because he doesn’t want to be in a relationship. He likes his singlehood, the freedom he gets. It was something he came to realize after dating two different girls in university for a few months each. It had been almost laughable how much he wanted to be in a relationship back in high school until he actually got into a relationship and realize it wasn’t quite the rosy portrait he had imagined it to be. Sunggyu has a tendency to put himself first, not in a narcissistic way, but rather that he values himself as his first priority, and it’s only when he got together with someone did he notice how that trait doesn’t jive well with either of his exes. And by the time he broke up with the second girl, he had decided that perhaps, relationships weren’t right for him, and singlehood might be much better. And so he continues being single.

That Kim Sunggyu is almost certainly always single is as true as saying Nam Woohyun is almost certainly always attached. It’s not so much a comparison as it is a fact. Woohyun had started dating back in high school, back when Sunggyu couldn’t even dream of being in a relationship (not for lack of trying though). When it first started, Sunggyu had been pretty annoyed with Woohyun spending less time with him – him who was Woohyun’s best friend – but he quickly learned to hang out with more friends besides Woohyun, and to control the inevitable trickle of jealousy he has over the fact that Woohyun gets confessed to, and has dates whereas he doesn’t. It’s not like Woohyun can control the fact that girls like him anyway. They just like his generally cheery personality (even if that’s not how Woohyun is like when he’s hanging out alone with Sunggyu), how he’s not hard on the eyes (even though Sunggyu knows Woohyun keeps a strict exercise regime to maintain his physique), and they even like how he’s cheesy and greasy (which is something Sunggyu doesn’t get personally, but that’s not the point).

Okay, maybe he didn’t really get over the fact that girls like Woohyun more than they liked him in high school, but that’s a thing of the past, and the Sunggyu of the moment has different opinions now that he’s more mature, and isn’t looking for a relationship. But the point remains. Sunggyu’s usually single, and Woohyun’s usually attached, unless he’s getting over a breakup. That has pretty much being the status quo, and it’s one that Sunggyu accepts and is comfortable with. He’s not a fan of how fast Woohyun goes from one relationship to the next with hardly any breaks in between, especially the way the breaks got shorter after he started university, but that’s only because he’s worried that Woohyun’s just using the new girl or guy as a rebound. Other than that, Sunggyu doesn’t think too much the fact that he’s single while Woohyun’s attached.

It’s precisely because it’s something he doesn’t think about and takes for the norm, that Sunggyu’s not too sure what to do with the information Dongwoo accidentally spills. There are a million reasons why he doubts the statement, and can’t help but wonder if he had heard wrongly. Firstly, there’s the fact that Woohyun has been pretty much constantly dating for the last few years Sunggyu has known him, and the person he dated has never once been Sunggyu. Secondly, Woohyun has never shown any indication that he might be interested in him beyond being friends. Sure, Woohyun doesn’t care about gender, which means it’s possible that he _might_ like Sunggyu romantically, but even with his supposedly big ego (according to his exes, at least), Sunggyu thinks it’ll be presumptuous to think that Woohyun might like him just because he’s a guy (or like, in Woohyun’s case, a human, because he doesn’t care about gender). Thirdly, although it’s probable that best friends can sometimes fall for each other, it’s kind of a cliché thought, isn’t it?

As Sunggyu tries to think of another reason (so maybe he doesn’t have a _million_ reasons), noting that his third one is pretty weak in terms of logic, he can’t help but wonder if he might have really just misheard Dongwoo, or maybe misunderstood what he said. After all, he hadn’t been paying full attention towards the end, and it’s possible that he might have missed out something. It won’t be the first time he jumped to strange conclusions with incomplete comprehension of other people’s words anyway. And Sunggyu also can’t help but wonder if perhaps he really hadn’t gotten over the fact that he had never been confessed to before, even as he claims he doesn’t care, and somehow his more perceptive subconscious might have picked up on that and decided to misconstrue Dongwoo’s sentence as something that suggested someone (okay, _Woohyun_ ) might be interested in him first, for once.

The logic is so convoluted and messed up that Sunggyu’s starting to think it’s possible, because his brain thinks in odd ways sometimes. Annoyed over trying to figure out if he really correctly understood what Dongwoo had said, Sunggyu decides that he should just find the guy again and ask it to his face.

 

 

It takes almost two hours and at least a dozen texts traded back and forth with Hoya to find Dongwoo, because Sunggyu doesn’t have Dongwoo’s number. He has never had the need to text or call Dongwoo one-on-one before, and when he asked Hoya for Dongwoo’s number (he can’t ask Woohyun without having to explain why he needs the number, and Sunggyu doesn’t need that right now), he didn’t want to give out Dongwoo’s number without his permission, so Sunggyu has to settle for trying to contact Dongwoo via Hoya. Anyway, he manages to catch Dongwoo as he’s exiting a lecture hall, and to say Dongwoo’s surprised to see him is an understatement.

“What are you doing here?” Dongwoo asks, once he managed to get over the initial surprise he must have had from seeing Sunggyu at the Business side of the campus when Sunggyu takes Economics.

“I wanted to ask you about what you said during lunch,” Sunggyu starts, but before he manages to add anything else, Dongwoo makes a zipping gesture over his mouth.

“I didn’t say anything,” Dongwoo whispers past his lips which are now tightly pressed together. Sunggyu narrows his eyes at him, but Dongwoo doesn’t flinch. “I really didn’t say anything… la la la.”

Dongwoo’s acting is terrible, even by Sunggyu’s standards, and it’s obvious that he really just wants to pretend he hadn’t said whatever he did. Which Sunggyu may or may not have misheard, but now he can’t be sure, because Dongwoo’s not spilling anything else. He lets out a long sigh. It makes Dongwoo frown a little, and open his mouth. _Maybe he’ll say something now_ , Sunggyu thinks, but what leaves Dongwoo’s mouth aren’t the words he wanted to hear.

“You should probably ask Woohyun instead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a fast update only because I'm excited whenever I start a fic but subsequent updates will probably be much slower. Anyhow, hope you had fun reading so far :)


	3. Something strange

It doesn’t take Woohyun long to figure out that’s something’s a little… _off_ with Sunggyu during dinner. After all, he’s always been pretty good at reading people, and as Sunggyu’s best friend, he has had years to learn every little nuance in Sunggyu’s many expressions. Sometimes he even jokes that he can read what Sunggyu is thinking from just his eyes alone, and while it’s somewhat exaggerated, Woohyun is usually able to gather a pretty good idea of what Sunggyu’s thinking from looking into his eyes. Sunggyu’s eyes are narrow and kind of small, and Woohyun knows Sunggyu doesn’t think they’re his best features. But whatever shape and size they are, Sunggyu’s eyes hold such distinct emotions and thoughts in them that Woohyun doesn’t really notice their physical appearance as much as the thread of emotion it invokes in him.

Right now though, _right now_ , he’s not too sure what exactly Sunggyu’s thinking, because for one, Sunggyu has been avoiding his gaze by keeping his head down, presumably focused on eating but barely passing any food from his chopsticks to his lips. What little Woohyun has managed to catch leaves him puzzled, because he can’t figure out anything beyond the fact that Sunggyu’s thinking hard about something. The expression he wears isn’t one that Woohyun is familiar with, not the little pinch between his eyes and scrunch of his nose when he gets slightly annoyed (which happens pretty often, earning Sunggyu a reputation of being grumpy), or the relaxed but still kind of stern expression he has when he’s not really thinking about anything. Propping an elbow onto the table so he can rest his cheek on it while he stares at Sunggyu, Woohyun focuses on trying to figure the new look out, not thinking he might be bordering on creepy with his staring since it’s something Sunggyu has seen many times before anyway, until Sunggyu clears his throat.

“Why are you looking at me like I’m a specimen under a microscope?”

Woohyun feels his lips quirk at the comment, but replies simply, “I’m not looking at you.”

“Uh-huh. Is this one of those, I’m thinking about something and I just happen to be staring in your direction thing again?”

Instead of answering, Woohyun decides to say, “I managed to run to the lecture just in time after grabbing my printed assignment after lunch.” He doesn’t mean anything by the statement, uttering it because it’s the first thing that comes to mind, but Woohyun sees Sunggyu blink a little too fast, and that’s his first clue. In the same tone, Woohyun continues, as if he hadn’t paused a little too long while taking in Sunggyu’s reaction, “Did anything happen after I abruptly went off during lunch?”

There’s a visible rising of Sunggyu’s chest when he inhales too deeply, before he says, “No. Unless you count me being awkward while alone with Dongwoo, but that’s…” The words trail off as Sunggyu shrugs and Woohyun thinks he means to say _normal for me_ , because Sunggyu always thinks he’s awkward even though he’s the one who always somehow manages to command attention in a room without trying. Woohyun, on the other hand, is probably the actually awkward person even though he doesn’t seem like it, but that is only because he knows he’s awkward by nature and compensates for it by putting in double the effort to get people to like him.

After a while of Woohyun resuming eating because he’s not sure what to say, Sunggyu suddenly asks, “This might be a bad time to ask, so you don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to. But what did you like about Dongwoo?”

“Did?”

Sunggyu absently rubs the back of his neck. “Or ‘do’, whichever. I said ‘did’ only because you broke up with him, but you are still friends so maybe you still like him.”

Woohyun frowns a little, more from trying to figure out where this is going rather than from annoyance or anger, but he quickly smooths his face out so Sunggyu won’t think he’s upset by the question. It’s barely two weeks since he broke up with Dongwoo, sure, but for some reason, he doesn’t feel nearly as burdened or upset by this breakup as he did for most of his previous ones. (Or at least not now, because Woohyun momentarily recalls how much he had cried the first few days after it happened.) It might be because Dongwoo managed to transit from boyfriend to friend as easily as a chameleon changes colour because of his easygoing personality, but it could also be because he and Dongwoo were always a bit more like friends (with the added benefit of sex) even when they were dating rather than really boyfriends. Sunggyu’s patiently waiting for an answer, so Woohyun says, “I guess I liked him differently as a boyfriend than as a friend, but hmm, I like Dongwoo because he’s really optimistic and cheerful. Also, there’s something fascinating about him really smart while being kind of scatterbrained and easily distracted at times.”

Nodding, Sunggyu pokes lightly at a half-eaten eggroll that has been on his rice since the start of the meal. Woohyun tries not to roll his eyes, and instead picks up some kimchi and stir-fried vegetables to place on Sunggyu’s bowl, hoping that will get him to move his chopsticks and actually eat. Woohyun’s own bowl is almost empty but Sunggyu’s one across the table is still mostly full. It’s when he’s going for the second round of piling food onto Sunggyu’s now overflowing bowl that Woohyun hears a soft “What do you like about me?”

His reflexive response comes out quick and dry: “Your small eyes.”

There’s a scoff, followed by Sunggyu speaking in a slightly louder voice, although it is still a little too soft to be heard over the din of the diner without Woohyun straining his ears. “No, I mean _really_. What do you like about me?”

Woohyun’s first thought is _What?_ followed quickly by _Is Sunggyu looking for validation?_ Because that would be a first; Sunggyu has a pretty big ego, even if he’s always saying that Woohyun’s the prideful one. Instead of that though, he asks, “Why are you suddenly asking me this?”

The discomfort on Sunggyu’s face would be funny if it doesn’t make Woohyun’s mind suddenly go in a direction he hadn’t considered earlier with their relatively pointless (but clearly _friendly_ ) bantering. _Does he know –_

“I mean, what do you like about me as a friend?” Sunggyu interjects.

 _Oh._ He thinks maybe Sunggyu said the last three words a little too firmly, but Woohyun suspects it’s likely his own biased mind assigning importance to those words – “as a friend” – when Sunggyu probably meant nothing by it. “Uh, I don’t know man. I haven’t thought about it. We’ve been friends for too long, I can’t remember.”

It gets Sunggyu to stop questioning, the guy finally picking his chopsticks up to put food into his mouth with a slight furrow in his brows. But even as the conversation and dinner end, with Woohyun parting from Sunggyu at the bus stop to walk back alone to his apartment, he can’t help but feel like something’s still off, although he can’t pinpoint what it is exactly.

 

 

The next day is Saturday, and normally that would mean going on a date, or sleeping in past noon. But Woohyun’s single at the moment, so the first isn’t happening. As for sleeping in, well, it doesn’t happen either, because there’s a series of loud knocks on his door right now, waking him up at what appears to be 11 in the morning.

Since two weeks ago when he told Sunggyu about his breakup, Sunggyu has been making it a point to drop by Woohyun’s place on the weekends, usually bringing takeout for lunch and then spending the afternoons with him. He says it’s so Woohyun won’t be bored, but Woohyun knows Sunggyu is just worried that he’ll mope for too long after a breakup (which, to be fair, is something he has done many times before, so he can’t fault Sunggyu for assuming that). At the moment, Woohyun feels mostly fine, his emotions stable even if he thinks about the breakup, although he’s just a little tired from having to get up before his body naturally awakens. Rubbing his sleep-blurry eyes, Woohyun considers telling Sunggyu that – that he’s fine and doesn’t need the cheer-me-up treatment so Sunggyu doesn’t have to come over so early – but he dismisses the thought as quickly as it had appeared. As he drags his feet to the door to unlock it, Woohyun vaguely wonders why he doesn’t want to do that when it means he can sleep in late like his body wants to. He wonders if it’s because Sunggyu always brings him his favourite food when he comes over. He wonders if it’s because he likes Sunggyu’s company, even if they end up doing nothing but laze around the whole day.

(He wonders if it’s because he’s selfish.)

But those thoughts vanish once Woohyun pulls the door back to reveal Sunggyu standing with a plastic bag of food, and the smell of jjajangmyun prompts his stomach to growl audibly.

“Guess I’m just in time huh?” Sunggyu says with a smirk as he pushes pass Woohyun to walk into the living room without invitation. Woohyun rolls his eyes behind his back, but closes the door and follows Sunggyu (and the food) back in.

 

 

Woohyun had almost forgotten about Sunggyu acting odd yesterday (which he attributes to his brain being slow from having just woken up) but a few minutes into eating is all it takes for Woohyun to realize that something’s still the matter. He had been reaching over to pick up the disposable chopsticks on the table, and his fingers had brushed past Sunggyu’s arm. Normally that wouldn’t even elicit any sort of reaction, but today, for some reason, Sunggyu jumped a little. Woohyun had been about to ignore it, chalk it up to accidentally startling Sunggyu and his frail grandpa nerves, but then Sunggyu had to go and pick up the chopsticks quickly to toss in Woohyun’s direction as if he didn’t quite want to repeat the situation again, which makes Woohyun frown. He’s eating his noodles now, observing Sunggyu to see if he can figure out what’s _up_ with him, but Sunggyu seems determined to focus on mixing his noodles thoroughly and is stubbornly not looking up, so Woohyun gives up, settling for just eating the still mostly hot meal.

Later, they play some video games and everything seems pretty normal. It makes Woohyun think that he might have just misread the situation earlier. Maybe he’s just overthinking things. Sunggyu’s even wearing one of his usual annoyed expression (which is probably due to the fact that he lost the last three games). After a while, Woohyun stops trying to figure out if something is off. After all, he trusts his best friend to tell him what’s on his mind if there really is something wrong. With that thought, Woohyun puts his focus back on beating Sunggyu’s ass at Mario Kart for the fourth time.

Unfortunately, he loses the fourth game because Sunggyu’s competitive streak suddenly surfaces, and the fifth and sixth ones end up as lost causes as well. Slumping on the sofa, Woohyun watches Sunggyu flip through his stack of games, trying to find a new one to play because he’s “sick of beating Woohyun in the same game” ( _pfft_ ). Unlike Sunggyu, Woohyun doesn’t really feel like playing video games anymore, so he tries to switch off the television. Try is the word, because the moment he leans forward to reach for the remote control on the coffee table, Sunggyu yells a little too loudly.

“What are you doing?”

Not understanding what just happened, Woohyun simply replies, “Uh, just getting the remote control? Why are you yelling?”

Sunggyu doesn’t answer. Instead he scoots from where he’s seated on the floor to a spot further away from the sofa. It’s only then that Woohyun realizes that when he had leaned forward to grab the remote control from his spot on the sofa, he must have put too much of his weight against Sunggyu’s back. It’s the only plausible explanation, although it doesn’t seem like it’s one big enough to warrant shouting. He’s about to ask what’s wrong, but Sunggyu stands up too quickly and exits the room, mumbling that he needs the toilet.

 

 

After that, Woohyun can’t help but feel like there’s tension in the air between them. He’s not even sure what happened. One moment he was beating Sunggyu at video games (and admittedly, getting beaten equally often), and the next moment, they’re both using their phones individually, seated on opposite corners of the living room. It’s not the activity itself though; Woohyun has hung out with Sunggyu to do next to nothing before, each of them glued to their own laptops or music or whatever, but it had always been comfortable and never with this kind of palpable tension. Even when he had been crying his heart out over breakups, and Sunggyu had been seated beside silently, the room has never felt as suffocating before as it does right now. Woohyun suffers all of half an hour wondering what the heck is wrong, before he decides that maybe trying to figure this out by himself isn’t working, and he should really just ask directly.

He has to open and close his mouth a few times before he manages to say, “Hyung.”

Sunggyu doesn’t look up but it’s clear that he heard Woohyun, so he continues, “Hyung, what’s wrong?”

There’s a long pause during which Woohyun thinks maybe Sunggyu didn’t hear him, but then Sunggyu speaks, voice muted and too low to tell his tone of voice, “…do you like me?”

It sounds almost like the question Sunggyu had asked yesterday and Woohyun hesitates before deciding to say what he hadn’t voiced out loud previously, “Are you looking for validation or something? Why are you asking me this?” Sunggyu only gives him a strange look, so Woohyun sighs, and adds, “Dude, you know we’ve been best friends for years right? I might be a really _nice_ guy –“ no sarcastic laughter from Sunggyu at that, just more staring – “but even I won’t do that if I didn’t like you.”

Sunggyu blinks but lowers his head before Woohyun can read his expression. After a while, he shakes his head slowly. Expecting Sunggyu's reply to be a quiet one, Woohyun leans forward. It turns out he doesn’t have to though, because when Sunggyu speaks again, it’s loud and clear.

“No, what I mean is, do you like me _like me_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*plays awkward ending music and slinks away*)
> 
> Thank you for the kudos and comments so far! I really appreciate them, and I'll get to replying them once I clear my backlog of comments from my other fics. That aside, how do you like the story up till now?


	4. Nothing needs to change

_What…_ “…what are you talking about?”

The words leave his lips before he realises that he had said them. Woohyun barely has time to wonder _why_ Sunggyu had asked the question or the fact that his response doesn’t sound incredulous – which in itself is probably an answer – because he’s filled with a strange sense of what feels vaguely like relief. But at the same time, Woohyun registers that the feeling is also much more insidious than plain simple relief.

(Because, finally, Sunggyu _knows_.)

He doesn’t have the time to contemplate further on what he’s feeling because in front of him, Sunggyu blurts out, “You aren’t surprised.”

Woohyun blinks. He’s not sure what Sunggyu means.

“I mean,” Sunggyu continues, as if he’d picked on the question in Woohyun’s mind (or maybe he just took a while to put his words together), “Won’t a normal reaction be to think that I’m out of my mind for even asking that? You just sound…”

“…relieved?”

Sunggyu’s eyes narrow. “Is that what you’re feeling right now?”

Woohyun doesn’t even have to think. “No.”

There’s a long pause where they both look at each other like they have more they want to say, but don’t know how, or where to start. In the end, Woohyun sighs. “I’m surprised you figured it out, actually.”

The “oh” Sunggyu makes is barely audible, but Woohyun catches it anyway.  Sunggyu looks up, then to the floor, and eventually he says, “So… you do?”

“Do what?”

“Like me _like me_.”

Woohyun feels like laughing at Sunggyu’s choice of repeating the words to get his point across. Or maybe the laughter is an automatic response to prevent him from his other reflex – crying – but he’s in control enough to realise that either would be inappropriate. So he settles for, “I guess, yeah.” He doesn’t expect his answer to make Sunggyu jerk his head up suddenly, but it does, and now he’s wondering why Sunggyu looks angry.

“What do you mean, ‘I guess’?”

Woohyun contemplates evading the question, but it seems a little too late, so he shrugs, trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling growing in his chest. “I mean, I do like you that way, but it doesn’t matter.” After a pause, he adds, “Nothing needs to happen, you know. We can still be friends, like we’ve always been. Nothing needs to change.”

Another pregnant pause hangs in the air, strained with words unsaid and unreadable looks passed, before Sunggyu mumbles, “Okay.”

 

 

Woohyun’s alone in his apartment. Sunggyu went off already, saying he needs to go shortly after he mumbled that “okay”, and Woohyun’s not sure what he’s feeling at the moment. Now that he’s alone, with all the time he needs to examine his thoughts and emotions, Woohyun’s not sure if he’s glad that the conversation went the way it did, or disappointed.

He’s not disappointed that Sunggyu didn’t declare his undying love for him after confirming that Woohyun does indeed like him. It’s not how things work. Woohyun’s realistic enough to know that such stuff only happens in dramas and rom-coms, and besides, it’s not like he ever thought it’ll be possible, Sunggyu liking him back romantically when Sunggyu has only ever liked girls.  It’s one of the reasons why he never told the other about his feelings, keeping it a secret for who knows how long. No, that’s not the reason why he might be disappointed. It’s the fact that the conversation ended on a relatively anticlimactic note.

He’s not sure what he was expecting. Sunggyu getting angry? Sunggyu getting upset? Sunggyu getting worked up? Any or all of the above? Although Woohyun hadn’t really considered the possibilities because he had never intended to tell Sunggyu about his one-sided feelings, he didn’t think the conversation ending with just an “okay” to his “we can still be friends” would be how things went if (when) the secret got out. Wouldn’t people normally have a bigger reaction? Then again, maybe Sunggyu isn’t exactly the most normal person. Woohyun doesn’t know if he should be disappointed or glad that his little secret got found out with little to no fanfare (he’s not even sure how Sunggyu suddenly noticed when he hadn’t in all the years before). There’s a tiny bit of relief in not having to hide his feelings any longer, but to be honest, Woohyun’s grown so used to transforming any romantic feelings he has for Sunggyu into friendly ones that he doesn’t even think it’s anything worth being relieved for.

 

 

Later, lying in bed at night waiting for sleep to come, Woohyun finds his brain insistent on ruminating over what happened earlier, as if he hasn’t already done it enough before dinner, after dinner, in the shower, and after the shower. He tries to will himself to sleep, but it doesn’t work.  In the end, he gives up and gives in to thinking things through again, although he’s already done this countless times before.

If he’s to be honest, Woohyun thinks, fiddling with a corner of his blanket, the real reason why he doesn’t want to tell Sunggyu that he likes him isn’t because he thinks Sunggyu is straight (well, technically, Sunggyu has never used the term to describe himself but Woohyun thinks it’s highly likely because Sunggyu has never shown any interest in men although he has no issues with Woohyun being pansexual).

No, the real reason he doesn’t want to tell Sunggyu that he likes him is because he’s afraid it’ll ruin their friendship. While Woohyun thinks it’s quite unlikely that Sunggyu would like him romantically (being straight and all), on the off chance that Sunggyu _does_ like him romantically and on the off chance that they _do_ end up in a relationship, Woohyun thinks it’ll most likely end in a breakup. And should that happen – which is very probable, given his track record with dating – Woohyun doesn’t think he’ll be able to remain friends with Sunggyu. He’s pretty sure that _that_ breakup (if it even happens) would ruin him. No thanks, he’ll rather have his friendship with Sunggyu, and not risk it.

In a way, it’s kind of funny how he places a higher importance on his friendship with Sunggyu than any romantic relationship he has had. Maybe it’s because they’ve been friends for longer than Woohyun has ever dated anyone, and that makes the friendship more precious. Maybe it’s because he feels more like himself, doesn’t have to think too much about how he’s behaving in front of Sunggyu when he’s already seen him at his worse during his bratty teenage years. Either way, Woohyun thinks he can’t bear to lose the friendship he has with Sunggyu, one of the constants in his life for many years now. And surely, of all the things he can lose a friendship to, Woohyun doesn’t want to lose this precious friendship to something as preventable as a failed relationship.

So maybe, Woohyun should really be glad that the conversation went as anticlimactically as it did. It means he’s still best friends with Sunggyu, even after he found out about Woohyun’s one-sided feelings. It means his worse fear hasn’t come true. Still, he can’t help but get a niggling feeling that maybe the conversation ending as it had isn’t really a good thing. Turning over to lie on his side, Woohyun closes his eyes, wondering if this is just the calm before a storm. It’s not the best thing to be thinking about when he should be trying to sleep (which is what he needs for his tired body even though his mind is running), but Woohyun lets himself think about it a little more before the more rational voice in his head chides himself for thinking so pessimistically.

His brain continues ruminating over that for a long time, never reaching any new insights or conclusions, just an endless cycle of repetition. Eventually though, the pointless thoughts start to get mushed together and blurred as his breathing finally slows, and Woohyun finds himself finally drifting off to uneasy rest.

 

 

He’s not sure when it started exactly, him liking Sunggyu as more than just a friend. It’s kind of hard to tell, the way his memories of Sunggyu overlap and blur over time, messing up the chronology of what happened _when_ because he has known Sunggyu since elementary school. It also doesn’t help that Woohyun has always liked Sunggyu. It was probably more platonically when they first became friends and then best friends, but somewhere, somehow, at some point in time, it became more romantic. It’s like the initial platonic feelings of _like_ turning, growing into something more, and the process was too gradual for Woohyun to pinpoint when it happened. All he knows is that one day he could look at Sunggyu and see his lips as just lips (and not even particularly remarkable lips, mind you, just a normal thickness and an unmemorable shape), and one day he suddenly noticed how Sunggyu’s lips tense when he’s thinking hard, or how it curves slightly in the corners when he’s amused but not full-on smiling. That later grew into a strange urge to want to touch Sunggyu’s lower lip to see if it’s as wet as it looks, or to want to trace the edges of his upper lip across the cupid’s bow to see if they’re as firm as the crisp line suggests. Woohyun doesn’t actually let himself do any of those though, because he can’t help but feel that whatever he’s feeling, those feelings, those sudden wants, are _weird_.

Woohyun vaguely remembers that he’d already figured that he likes guys as well as girls by then, but even then he took a long time to recognise these urges, these feelings as something beyond strictly platonic feelings for this best friend. Then again, maybe the line between platonic and romantic is much harder to distinguish than the one between romantic and sexual. If Woohyun had had wet dreams about Sunggyu, or had thought of masturbating to thoughts of his best friend, he might have more quickly realised that his feelings for Sunggyu were more than platonic. But because neither of those happened and his feelings for Sunggyu appeared almost the same as they did when they were more platonic – just maybe with an additional edge of wanting closeness and touch – it took him ages to even consider that maybe what he feels for Sunggyu might be a little more than what best friends typically feel about each other.

It doesn’t matter though.

Because once Woohyun started realising all of these, he weighed the pros and cons of telling Sunggyu and decided it wasn’t worth risking their friendship. So he kept it to himself, learning to work with the fact that the line between platonic and romantic is thin and easily manipulated, pushing all the romantic thoughts he has of Sunggyu into more appropriate, friendly, platonic ones. He has done it for so long it’s second nature now, and he really doesn’t think it’ll be a problem continuing it if he can keep their friendship. So when Woohyun had told Sunggyu that they can still be friends, and nothing needs to change, he means it.

What Woohyun forgets is that he’s used to this, but Sunggyu isn’t.


	5. Complicated

He had told Woohyun he had something he needed to do so he would have an excuse to get out of Woohyun’s house, but Sunggyu doesn’t actually have anywhere he needs to be so he idles on the streets. His mood is a little strange at the moment, his mind hazy like it’s not fully processing everything that has happened, and he doesn’t know what to _do_ with the conversation he just had with Woohyun.

 _Woohyun likes me. He_ likes _me. Why? Since when?_

The questions repeat themselves in his already foggy mind, and Sunggyu keeps hearing Woohyun’s words –

_“Nothing needs to happen, you know. Nothing needs to change.”_

Squinting his eyes as if that would make the jumble of thoughts in his head sort themselves out, Sunggyu pinches the bridge of his nose. All the new information sit in his brain, bloated, and if Sunggyu even has the presence of mind to examine something beyond this barrage of information, he’ll notice that his own feelings on the matter are more complicated than he expected. The initial surprise and disbelief he had had when Dongwoo accidentally told him Woohyun likes him ( _Woohyun likes me. Why?_ ) is still there, but the expected sense of understanding – some sort of clarification he thought he would get after asking Woohyun about the issue itself – isn’t part of what he’s feeling. Instead, there’s something else, something amorphous and dark, too shapeless for him to make out what it is at the moment. Though, if Sunggyu’s being honest, it’s not something he really wants to examine too hard right now either.

Sunggyu rubs his hand tiredly across his face. Maybe he should go home instead of walking aimless on the streets. Maybe a warm shower and some food would help him clear his head.

 

 

The takeout dinner and long shower eased the tension in his body, but Sunggyu’s mind is still tangled ( _tripping_ ) on the happenings of the day when he emerges from the bathroom, wrapped in a soft towel.

Still, now that he’s a little bit less fuzzy-brained than he was earlier, Sunggyu thinks maybe the best way to figure things out (figure out what he’s feeling and thinking) would be to talk to someone else. He slowly changes into a soft t-shirt and sweatpants, wondering who he can talk to.

_Maybe I can call Myungsoo?_

Sunggyu stares at the number on his phone. _No, not a good idea._ While Myungsoo is a close friend of his since high school (he’s the one Sunggyu started hanging out with more frequently after Woohyun got busy with dating), Myungsoo is as much Woohyun’s close friend as he is Sunggyu’s, and that isn’t the best thing to be when Sunggyu needs an unbiased perspective on what happened today. Besides, he doesn’t want Myungsoo to look at either him or Woohyun differently after telling him this, although he’s pretty sure the guy wouldn’t, but still…

_Someone else… Who else can I talk to about this?_

Opening Kakaotalk, the first thing Sunggyu sees is the message he had sent Hoya last night, something about their group work. Without processing what he’s doing, Sunggyu finds his fingers starting to type a message to Hoya.

_[8:47pm] Can…_

Before he finishes the thought, Sunggyu quickly slams the delete button, holding it for longer than necessary. Tapping his nail on the side of his phone, Sunggyu wonders what he should say. How should he start the conversation? He can’t just say _hi_ like he would in a normal conversation, and _Can I talk to you about something?_ sounds way too stilted, even for him. But how does one even go about telling someone else that their best friend basically told them that they like them, only to also say in the same breath that they should just behave like nothing has happened?

_[8.48pm] …_

Another minute passes, then another, and still Sunggyu’s staring at the blank messaging screen. In the end, he forces himself to stop thinking so hard and quickly types something, hitting send before he can press delete again.

_[8.53pm] Do you have a best friend?_

It’s too far from what he wants to talk about, but it’s a safe enough start, so Sunggyu waits for Hoya’s reply. It doesn’t take long.

_[8.55pm] What kind of question is that?_

Then a few seconds later:

_[8.55pm] Of course I do. Why are you even asking_

Sunggyu waits for a while more, thinking Hoya might send another reply (maybe something lame like, _Do you not have a best friend?_ or some similar jab he would expect from the guy), but he doesn’t. So Sunggyu starts typing his reply hesitantly.

_[8.57pm] I… kind of have a situation. Regarding my best friend._

He spends too long trying to figure out what to write after that, and Hoya must have sensed something being up, because instead of his usual sarcastic “ _And…???_ ” (okay, so there’s usually only one question mark, but Sunggyu swears he can hear the judgement in that short text), Hoya sends:

_[8.57pm] …do you need to talk or something?_

It’s a much less sarcastic reply that he expects from Hoya, but Sunggyu still thinks he hears Hoya’s judging voice in the message. He’s questioning his earlier decision to talk about this with Hoya when the guy suddenly calls him.

“What’s the cryptic message about?” Hoya says instead of hi, and Sunggyu rolls his eyes. Maybe it’s a bad idea to be talking to Hoya about this. But then Hoya adds in a gentler tone, “Is something bothering you?” and Sunggyu finds himself sighing.

“Yeah.”

 

 

It actually takes less time than he thought it would to tell Hoya what happened. Sunggyu doesn’t delve into too much details, just lays out the basic facts.

“Wow, okay,” is the first thing Hoya says after Sunggyu is done. “That’s…”

Sunggyu sighs, dropping onto his bed and pulling his knees towards his chest. “I don’t know what to do about this.”

Hoya doesn’t say anything for a long while, and Sunggyu’s kind of starting to regret telling him when Hoya’s voice starts tentatively from the other side of the phone. “Maybe you need to think about how you feel about this whole thing first…”

“I don’t know what I feel,” Sunggyu answers almost reflexively, setting his chin onto his knees. His head is still filled with thoughts scattered and scrambled, but he isn’t lying when he said he doesn’t know how he feels about this.

“Well, I can’t really help you much, you know,” Hoya says eventually. “Especially if you don’t even know what you’re feeling.” There seems to be more implied in Hoya’s words, but Sunggyu doesn’t ask (doesn’t want to know), so instead he lets Hoya talk to him about hypothetical solutions that don’t work ( _won’t_ work) because Hoya doesn’t know Woohyun that well nor does he know the exact dynamics of Sunggyu’s friendship with Woohyun. Though technically, it’s really Sunggyu’s fault for choosing to tell this to Hoya in the first place, instead of someone like Myungsoo. He listens to Hoya try his best to give something other than generic advice to a situation ( _his_ situation) that’s probably pretty absurd and which Hoya barely knows anything about, and Sunggyu tries not to think about the complicated tangle of things in his head.

 

 

He doesn’t see Woohyun the next day since it’s a Sunday, though Woohyun sends him some photo he found on the Internet that he probably thinks is funny. Sunggyu reads the message but doesn’t reply. He’s not deliberately ignoring Woohyun – it’s not like he usually replies to all of Woohyun’s random “ooh look this is cute” messages when some of them are too lame to deserve a response – but he feels like he might be anyway. Still, Sunggyu figures it’s within the range of his normal behavior, so he chucks his phone aside and gets his laptop out. He’s no closer to figuring out how to deal with the situation (or is there even a _situation_ after Woohyun said nothing has to change?) but spending his entire day dwelling on it probably wouldn’t help, so he might as well do some homework.

It’s only later when he’s already lying on the bed, having spent the day productively finishing all his readings and assignments does Sunggyu realise that he probably should have spent some time thinking about the situation. Because, tomorrow, he’ll have to see Woohyun in school, and now that he’s thinking about it, he has no clue how he will (how he _should_ ) behave around Woohyun.

 

 

Monday comes too fast with Sunggyu having only slept an hour or two after tossing and turning in bed. He eats lunch with Woohyun and Dongwoo as usual, which is actually more of Sunggyu just sitting quietly at the table while Woohyun talks to Dongwoo as if nothing happened. (Or maybe technically nothing did. Maybe he’s the only one still out of the loop.)

Silently eating his stew as if that’s the only thing on his mind, Sunggyu turns over the conclusion he came to last night while sorting through the thoughts in his head. He hadn’t done it voluntarily – the productive spurt of homework being done should be indication enough – but he hadn’t been able to fall asleep and his mind had started drifting into thinking about things so he let it. Putting his spoon to his mouth, Sunggyu looks at Woohyun laughing with Dongwoo about something and feels a weight settling in his chest. He’s not sure what it is exactly but he does know that he’s _bristled_ about what happened at Woohyun’s apartment on Saturday.

Dongwoo’s still laughing at whatever reply Woohyun gives him, waving his chopsticks around randomly, and Sunggyu stops looking, fixes his eyes on his bowl of rice as if it’s the most interesting thing around. He doesn’t want to be sitting here, but he had sort of agreed to what Woohyun had said about keeping things the same, and he doesn’t want to go back on that promise. So Sunggyu stays at the table even though he would much rather be away (away from Woohyun). If he accidentally stabs his rice a little too hard when he hears Woohyun laugh, no one notices.

(No one except himself, Sunggyu notices somewhat bitterly.)

 

 

He skips lunch the next day under the pretext of rushing for a deadline (lies, he finished everything he needed to and more on Sunday), so the next time Sunggyu sees Woohyun is Wednesday. Dongwoo’s already at the table waving them over, so Sunggyu doesn’t say anything to Woohyun, just trudges to the table and leaves his bag.

“What are you getting?” Woohyun asks conversationally later while they queue for food. Sunggyu reads the first item on the menu, and Woohyun nods – nods like it’s normal even though it’s _tonkatsu_ , and Sunggyu doesn’t ever buy tonkatsu when there’s proper Korean food on the menu, which there _is_. Sunggyu doesn’t comment on Woohyun’s lack of reaction, just makes himself order tonkatsu even though his tastebuds will hate him later, and he tunes out whatever else Woohyun says.

 

 

They don’t share the same lunch break on Thursday unless Sunggyu skips out on lecture (which he had done on the week after Woohyun broke up with Dongwoo, not that Woohyun would know, because Sunggyu had lied and said lecture was cancelled), so Sunggyu doesn’t see Woohyun for another day. He replies one or two of those “look at this thing I found on the Internet” messages Woohyun sends his way, more to keep up appearances of keeping things the same between Woohyun and himself than because he actually has anything much to say.

By the time Friday rolls around, Sunggyu knows that he’s avoiding Woohyun on purpose, ignoring him whenever possible, and it’s a little more than just taking some time to think things through because he actually feels reluctant to step into the cafeteria for lunch when it’s noon. He hasn’t sat himself down to further examine what he _feels_ about the situation since he tossed and turned over it on Sunday night, even though he remembers that Hoya had emphasized that figuring out what he _feels_ about the whole thing is the first step, and a very important one at that. Instead, Sunggyu has been burying himself in more school work so he can avoid delving deeper into _why_ he’s bristled, although he knows without thinking that there’s something _more_ that he’s feeling besides being bristled, even if he doesn’t wish to confront it right now.

(Whatever it is, it’s very much related to Woohyun.)

 

 

He’s pushing food into his mouth again. Open, chew, swallow, repeat. It’s mechanical and Sunggyu feels himself tuning out but his body remembers enough to nod at various points in the conversation when Dongwoo faces him like he’s talking to him and Sunggyu thinks that’s good enough. He hasn’t been listening so it’s not like he can say anything sensible in reply anyway. It’s only when Dongwoo looks at him for too long, Woohyun mirroring his concerned expression, does Sunggyu realise that something’s up.

“Are you okay?” Dongwoo asks, and Sunggyu nods.

“Are you sure?”

It’s Woohyun this time, and while he feels vaguely guilty about not listening to what Dongwoo had said, it’s a different feeling rising and swirling its way into his belly when he hears Woohyun’s words. “Of course I’m sure,” Sunggyu snaps, then quickly bows his head to hide his outburst, resuming eating as if snapping at an innocuous question is perfectly normal.

He can feel Dongwoo’s concern even without looking up, but it’s not him Sunggyu has his attention on. It’s Woohyun’s shadow he’s staring at – the black shape moving closer to him, casting a grey tinge over his bowl of soup, and suddenly there’s a hand on his arm.

“Is something wrong?” Woohyun asks, and Sunggyu feels like laughing.

 _Of course something is wrong_ , he wants to shout, but this isn’t the place for it, so he just says, “Nothing major, I’m fine.”

He probably sounds as believable as he thinks (which is not at all), but all Woohyun says after a long silence passes is –

“Okay.”

 

 

He doesn’t go to Woohyun’s place on Saturdays anymore. It’s been long enough; Woohyun shouldn’t still be needing someone to comfort him about his breakup with Dongwoo, especially not when he’s already back on friendly terms with Dongwoo. So Sunggyu keeps to himself, trying to find more things he can distract himself with because he had done all his readings, even the optional ones, and he’s about as done with homework as anyone can be.

His phone vibrates; someone had sent him a new message. Sunggyu hopes it’s not Woohyun and his stupid “look what I found” notifications – he only sends things he found over the Internet these days instead of actually writing anything – but it turns out to be just Hoya, so Sunggyu picks up his phone.

_[11:01am] Want to meet later to start on the next part of our group work?_

_What group work?_ , Sunggyu wonders, then remembers. _Right_. The next part of the assignment, the one he finished on one of the days this week while he was trying to keep his mind off things…

_[11.02am] I finished it._

Hoya’s reply is swift.

_[11.02am] Cool, so we can just talk and I can do my part to match what you’ve already done._

Sunggyu frowns at the message, then replies:

_[11.03am] No, actually I did both our parts already._

_[11.03am] I finished the whole thing._

This time Hoya doesn’t reply for a while, so Sunggyu waits. After a while his phone buzzes.

_[11.07am] …_

_[11.07am] Not that I’m not sort of glad I don’t have to do work but_

_[11.07am] Are you okay_

He has heard the same question too many times this past week and each time Sunggyu had felt like laughing in reply. He feels the same laughter rising from his chest this time as well. It’s not a pleasant kind of laughter – more self-deprecating than anything – so he hadn’t actually let it escape when he was in public (when he was with Woohyun), but Sunggyu’s alone in his room today, so he lets it fall out. The sound that escapes is harsh, brittle, but before he knows it, Sunggyu’s squeezing his eyes shut as his chest heaves in time for what’s supposed to be laughter while silence rolls off his lips.

 

 

When his doorbell rings, Sunggyu expects it to be Hoya. He had been the one to insist on doing the group work anyway even if Sunggyu “claims to have finished it” (Hoya’s words). But when he opens the door, it isn’t Hoya standing across the threshold, it’s Woohyun.

“We should talk,” Woohyun says, and Sunggyu’s tempted to slam the door on his too sharp nose. He’s not sure why he feels the need for such violence when he has never been particularly inclined towards it, and it’s his surprise at how uncharacteristic the reaction is for him that Sunggyu continues holding the door open while he blinks at Woohyun.

“Can I come in?” Woohyun asks after a while, and finally Sunggyu gets his body to move, stepping back so Woohyun can enter.

“Why are you here?” Sunggyu hears himself ask after a while, after Woohyun settles himself on his sofa.

“We need to talk,” Woohyun replies, turning to look at him. Sunggyu quickly averts his gaze.

“What’s there to talk about?” He tries to make himself sound casual, but the sudden tension in Woohyun’s posture lets Sunggyu know how much he had failed.

“Something’s bothering you,” Woohyun eventually says, and that’s when something in Sunggyu suddenly _breaks_. All the thoughts that have been building up tangled nests in his head, all the emotions he hadn’t been letting himself feel and everything that he hadn’t wanted to examine (had pushed to the back of his head) –

They suddenly overwhelm him.

“You don’t _say_ ,” is what Sunggyu deadpans, but in his head, words are rearranging themselves to form more coherent thoughts than he thought he could have with the jumbled up, complicated mess in his head the whole week. If he’s being honest (and he finally is, finally reached that point where he can’t run and can’t hide anymore), he’s bristled. He’s bristled that someone likes him first, for once, but it has to be Woohyun, his best friend whom he never thought about in that way before. He’s bristled that he even has ( _still_ has) a complex about never having being confessed to before and that   _that_ plays a bigger part than he would like in his annoyance over the fact that the only person who may even confess to him is Woohyun.

Except that of course Woohyun hadn’t actually confessed to him. No, Woohyun hadn’t even liked him enough to want to confess to him. Of course not. (And if he’s being honest, Sunggyu hates that he can hear how _insecure_ he’s being right now.) And then after Sunggyu found out that Woohyun likes him by accident, Woohyun has to say that _nothing has to happen, nothing has to change_. The _audacity_ he has, to spill something so big on Sunggyu and expect him to just gloss over it as if it’s merely a scrapped knee. It’s not even like Sunggyu had asked to be a part of this (whatever _this_ is), and suddenly he’s expected to go along with the act of “everything’s normal; nothing’s changed” without having time to adjust to the new knowledge. And Sunggyu hasn’t even gotten to the point where he wonders if he even _likes_ Woohyun romantically; he’s still dwelling on the fact that he had never asked to be a part of this, and suddenly there’re too many things happening at once, and he doesn’t know how he feels besides bristled and annoyed and –

“Will you tell me what’s wrong? Instead of just avoiding me?” Woohyun asks quietly, and Sunggyu looks up. He looks at Woohyun hold himself tightly like he wants to take up less space in Sunggyu’s apartment, like he’s as uncomfortable to be here as much as Sunggyu wishes Woohyun wasn’t in his living room. If this was any other day before he found out that Woohyun likes him, Sunggyu would reach a hand out, comfort his best friend. But today, looking at Woohyun’s slumped posture, all Sunggyu thinks is, _why are you standing there looking hurt when I’m the one who should be hurt?_

And that’s when Sunggyu realises –

It’s not annoyance he feels, it’s _hurt_.

 _He’s_ hurt. He’s hurt that Woohyun didn’t think to tell him something so important; that Woohyun didn’t think he should have at least told his best friend he likes him even if it would have been awkward, because best friends shouldn’t keep such secrets from each other. He’s hurt that he has to find all this out from someone else, and accidentally, on top of it. But most of all, he’s hurt that Woohyun hadn’t given him time to process the (not) confession or time to respond but had instead told him that nothing has to change, even when it’s obvious that with something as big as this, things are going to change, whether they like it or not.

Now that he has finally figured out what the heavy weight in his chest is and why he’s been avoiding Woohyun all week, Sunggyu squeezes his eyes shut, before slowly raising his gaze to Woohyun.

They need to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out longer than expected and also maybe more angsty than intended, but I hope you like the update. I'll love to know what you think!
> 
> Also I wrote another INFINITE fic in the meantime called [Destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8701960), and it's almost complete (the epilogue goes up tomorrow). It's more lighthearted than this fic, featuring Woohyun waking up in a parallel universe, so do check it out if you're interested :) It'll be a good way to diffuse the angst in this chapter heh.


	6. A week

There’s something scary about Sunggyu’s gaze. It’s a look Woohyun has never had directed at him before, the one Sunggyu reserves for only when he’s giving someone a piece of his mind. Woohyun holds himself tightly, bracing for the words to come, but all Sunggyu says is –

“We need to talk.”

Woohyun blinks. He has been trying to say that since earlier, Sunggyu sidestepping his request to do just that, but maybe he shouldn’t mention that now. Instead, Woohyun opens his mouth, ponders over each word he says before he voices them in case he ends up saying something wrong, “Yeah, talk to me, please. What’s wrong?”

There’s a long silence as Woohyun watch Sunggyu think – and Woohyun knows he’s thinking, because there’s that familiar furrow of brows and tensed lips – before Sunggyu says, slowly, like each word needs to be carefully constructed, “You… haven’t given me time to wrap my mind around this, you know. You basically just admitted to liking me and then told me that things should stay the same in the same breath and that’s… that’s not how things work.”

Woohyun looks at him, momentarily speechless. “I-I… no? I didn’t mean it that way?”

The furrow between Sunggyu’s brows deepens, and Woohyun tries to explain, “What I mean is, you don’t need to worry about the matter on my account. Like, yeah, I like you… that way… well, sort of… but I don’t really expect you to reciprocate or anything. You can just be yourself, the way you usually are before you found out, you know.”

Sunggyu’s grim expression doesn’t change, and Woohyun tries not to shrink, quickly adding, “Also, I’ve actually been trying to give you space. Why did you think I waited until now to ask you what’s wrong?”

The moment he says that last bit, Woohyun thinks that it might have been better if he hadn’t, because Sunggyu avoids his gaze, turning away. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought that up, the fact that he had been actually been trying to give Sunggyu space by not messaging him too much, by not probing the whole past week even though it was obvious that Sunggyu was bothered by something ( _this_ thing). Maybe saying it in that way makes it sound like the matter is more about him than Sunggyu and that’s not what he means and –

Woohyun catches himself mid-thought. Since when did he have to be so careful with what he says around Sunggyu? Shaking his head to clear that train of thought, Woohyun licks his dry lips, considering whether he should try clarifying that anyway, when Sunggyu interjects.

“Is that what you were trying to do?”

Woohyun jerks his head up at the question, tries to recall everything he had said earlier. “Uh…yeah?”

The expression on Sunggyu’s face shifts to something that’s more akin to discomfort than anger, but Woohyun’s still not entirely sure what it means. He had thought he knew all of Sunggyu’s expressions, knew the way his eyes twinkle or fume to reveal his many emotions, but apparently he didn’t, because Woohyun has no clue what Sunggyu is thinking right now. In the end, he just waits for Sunggyu to speak. But after a long, strained silence, all Sunggyu says is –

“I… need time to sort out my thoughts about this.”

The first thing on the tip of Woohyun’s tongue is that Sunggyu doesn’t need to think so hard about this, that Woohyun doesn’t mind if his one-sided feelings aren’t reciprocated – he had told Sunggyu as much earlier – but then Woohyun remembers that Sunggyu had basically told him that he needs time and space to think this through, and who is Woohyun to dictate what Sunggyu should or shouldn’t do? So instead of that first reaction, Woohyun puts on a smile he doesn’t quite feel, loosens the arms he had wrapped around his own body during the conversation and tries to sound casual.

“Alright. Is there anything I can do?”

Sunggyu looks at him properly for the first time in what feels like too long since this exchange started. “Yeah.”

Woohyun waits. Watches Sunggyu take a deep breath before he speaks again.

“…Give me a week. Don’t contact me.”

Woohyun thinks his eyes widen before he realises what he’s doing, and Sunggyu probably picks up on that surprise (the faint trace of hurt) because he adds in a softer tone, “I… I just need to be sure that whatever I decide is my own decision and not affected by you. I…” Sunggyu bites his lips at the last word, like he wants to say more, but then he just shrugs. “…yeah. _Yeah_.” He shrugs again, the movement jerky and awkward.

Woohyun has to clear his throat twice before he figures out what to say. “Oh-kay. I… That’s reasonable, I guess.” Standing stiffly where he is, Woohyun finds himself staring at the floor of Sunggyu’s apartment, wondering when the air around him and Sunggyu got this awkward. He can’t remember how long it has been since he felt this uncomfortable around his best friend, and it’s so weird (so _unnatural_ ) that Woohyun doesn’t know what to do with himself. He’s about to make up some excuse to go, when the doorbell rings.

“That…must be Hoya,” Sunggyu mumbles after a heartbeat. He stands there unmoving in front of Woohyun for a moment more before he abruptly turns, heading for the door. Woohyun figures this could be the excuse he needs to leave.

“Uh, yeah, okay, I’ll –” _see you in a week_ , Woohyun almost says, but it would sound too much like he’s trying to remind Sunggyu of the time period like it’s a deadline, so instead he quickly switches to – “…get going then. I have something I need to finish up anyway.”

Woohyun ends the sentence with a jaunty wave he doesn’t feel, and he’s out of the door before he hears what Sunggyu replies, pushing his way past a startled Hoya to exit the apartment.

 

 

The next week (the week he’s not supposed to contact Sunggyu), Woohyun spends almost all his free time with Dongwoo. Woohyun doesn’t really tell Dongwoo why Sunggyu’s not eating lunch with them for the first few days, but after Dongwoo asks after Sunggyu for the umpteenth time (“Is he sick? He didn’t seem too well last week too…”), Woohyun caves in.

“Sunggyu’s not joining us for lunch this week.”

Dongwoo looks at him then, his cheeks round with food. “Why?” he asks, although it comes out more like a muffled sound than anything with how much food he has in his mouth.

Woohyun shrugs, then picks up a napkin to wipe up the bits of food that had landed on the table from Dongwoo talking with his mouth full.

“Just… for some reasons.”

Dongwoo chews and swallows his food, then grabs a napkin to clean his mouth. “Oh…” He misses a spot, and Woohyun has to lean over to hold Dongwoo’s hand so he can get the sauce he has on his cheek.

“Thanks,” Dongwoo says, grinning. He doesn’t ask more about Sunggyu (is probably too nice to press when Woohyun had given such an evasive answer) so he just goes back to eating. Woohyun rests his cheek on his palm, picking at his own rice absently. He watches Dongwoo stuff the rest of his lunch into his mouth at what cannot possibly be a healthy pace for his digestive system before he finds himself saying without thinking, “Actually, Sunggyu asked me not to contact him for a week.”

“Eh? Why?”

The tone of surprise and concern in Dongwoo’s exclamation is so genuine, Woohyun almost laughs. He has forgotten how Dongwoo’s friendliness and good-naturedness means he sometimes gets overly worried about other people’s affairs.

“Nothing much. Just…” Woohyun pauses then, wondering how much he can tell Dongwoo (how much he _should_ ). On one hand, it’s not like Dongwoo doesn’t know about Woohyun’s one-sided feelings for Sunggyu – it was the reason why Dongwoo had asked to break up with him after all – but on the other hand, he’s not sure how Sunggyu would feel about Dongwoo knowing that Sunggyu now knows. Then again, it’s not like this is meant to be a secret – Sunggyu hadn’t said it was, and Woohyun doesn’t really have many secrets he keeps from Dongwoo after they had dated – so Woohyun eventually ends up saying, “You remember what I told about my one-sided crush on Sunggyu?”

Dongwoo nods, the movement a little too measured and slow, but Woohyun doesn’t pay heed to that. He continues, “Yeah, well. He found out.”

Dongwoo’s eyes widen, his mouth agape. The sight would be hilarious if this isn’t about Woohyun and his one-sided feelings for his best friend, and he’s about to smack Dongwoo for giving such an exaggerated (unhelpful) reaction when Dongwoo blurts out, “Oh god, this is all my fault.”

Woohyun’s hand freezes before it contacts the side of Dongwoo’s shoulder.

“…What?”

Suddenly avoiding Woohyun’s gaze, Dongwoo shifts, his shoulders a little droopy, his expression sheepish. “I, uh… might or might not have accidentally told Sunggyu that you like him a few weeks ago.” Rubbing his arm nervously, Dongwoo adds in an apologetic tone, “I didn’t mean to though! I’m sorry!”

Dongwoo bows his head then, and Woohyun stares at him. He can’t figure out if he wants to hit Dongwoo or just give up and slump in his seat. In the end, Woohyun settles for sinking into the plastic cafeteria chair, a disgruntled sound that’s part frustration and part incredulousness escaping his lips.

“Namu, are you okay?” Dongwoo asks after a while, eyes peeking out from under his fringe, probably surprised that Woohyun hasn’t hit him or said anything. The concern in his voice is clear, and Woohyun slides further down his chair. He’s not really mad at Dongwoo – well, no, he’s mad, sort of, but he also knows Dongwoo probably really did it by accident so it’s not like he can stay angry at him – and Woohyun can only sigh. Maybe this would have happened sooner or later anyway, and Dongwoo accidentally telling Sunggyu just sped things up, Woohyun reasons to himself. It’s not unlikely, after all, that Sunggyu might have eventually figured out Woohyun’s one-sided feelings for him even without Dongwoo’s slip-up.

Still, despite how sound the logic is in that argument, it doesn’t exactly make Woohyun feel better. He sighs again, hands coming up to cover his face. Woohyun suddenly feels very tired. He hasn’t noticed how much he talks to Sunggyu, spends his time with him and relies on him until he had tried to give Sunggyu space the week before, and now that he has to cease contact with Sunggyu for another week, Woohyun’s just… tired. It feels like a very integral part of his life is missing, and he’s not sure what to do. He hasn’t really felt this way since he had a big fight with Sunggyu in middle school, when they didn’t speak to each other for weeks.

“No,” Woohyun eventually replies, his voice soft and muffled by his palms. _No, I’m not okay,_ he wants to say but doesn’t, although maybe Dongwoo picks up on it anyway, because he walks over to wrap his arms around Woohyun’s shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Namu.”

Woohyun lets Dongwoo hug him for a little more, taking more comfort in it than he’s willing to admit, before he pushes his friend’s hands away.

“It’s not your fault anyway,” Woohyun says, trying to sound casual. He probably doesn’t quite pull it off, but Dongwoo doesn’t call him out on it. He lets Dongwoo give him a pat on the back and walk him to lecture afterwards, but the whole time, Woohyun’s just thinking, if it’s not Dongwoo’s fault, and if it’s not Sunggyu’s fault, whose fault is it? Is it _his_? Is it his fault, for liking Sunggyu? Is it his fault because he didn’t tell him? Or maybe, just maybe, is this whole thing no one’s fault at all?

Woohyun doesn’t reach an answer in the time it takes to reach the lecture hall, nor does he gain one later in the evening when he drags himself home after class. In the end, Woohyun falls into bed without getting any closer to an answer, too tired to even change his clothes before he lets his eyes close. Maybe things would sort themselves out if he stops thinking about it.

At least, that’s what he hopes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't updated this in a while since I was mostly updating [Three](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8853088/chapters/20301664) but I needed a break from the pacing and writing style of Three, so this chapter happened. Thanks to Chelsie for beta-ing this chapter, even though it's angsty ahh. On a side note, I forgot how emotionally constipated everyone is in this fic. ~_~
> 
> Anyway, I'll love to know what you think, leave me a comment or kudos if you like it :)


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